“In 2014 while riding my motorcycle in rural Louisiana, I encountered a large group of people riding horseback. They commanded the road, and I pulled over for them to pass. I retrieved my camera from the saddlebag of my bike and took a few photographs as they rode by. A gentleman near the end of the procession waved, encouraging me to join. So began my ride as witness to the trail-riding clubs.”

- Jeremiah Ariaz

African American Trail Riding Clubs have their roots in the Creole culture formed in South Louisiana in the eighteenth century. Today trail rides are an opportunity for generations of people to gather, celebrate, and ride horseback. The riders form a distinctive yet little-known sub-culture in Southwest Louisiana. In addition to sharing an important aspect of Louisiana’s cultural heritage, Ariaz’s photographs assert a counter-narrative to historic representations of the cowboy and prevailing images of difference and despair in Black America.

Jeremiah Ariaz, creates works that explore both the geography and ideology of the American West. He received his BFA from the Kansas City Art Institute and MFA from the State University of New York at Buffalo. Ariaz has exhibited and been invited to speak about his photography internationally. Projects include Staging the West, Tucumcari, Reconsidering Landscape, Shadow Root: Retracing the Santa Fe Trail, Fact and Fiction: Imaging the West, and Louisiana Trail Riders. Louisiana Trail Riders is the first project set in his adopted Southern home of Louisiana where he is an Associate Professor of Art at Louisiana State University.